Sea, Mothers, Swallow, Tongues: A Novel

Winner of the German Book Prize, the Swiss Book Prize, and the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Literature Prize

A prizewinning, boundary-breaking debut exploring family, class, history, and the true idea of the self.

A glorious, tender, unsparing exploration of language, family, history, class, self, and the human, Sea, Mothers, Swallow, Tongues begins with the loss of memory. As their grandmother falls into dementia, the narrator begins to ask questions—to fill in the silences and the gaps. Childhoo...